schools

In conjunction with Ireland’s Science Week, Debating Science Issues (DSI) is being launched with an upper secondary school workshop series. The schools’ science programme, now in its eighth year, invites young people to engage in debate on the cultural, societal and ethical implications of advances in biomedical science.

Although the workshop phase of DSI is under way, several partners are still recruiting schools. The pre-competition workshops provide an open and impartial environment and challenge the students to consider the ethical impacts of contemporary research. After the school workshop, students work with their team and under their teacher’s supervision to prepare for a debate competition involving more than 36 schools across Ireland to determine the 2015 All-Ireland winners. Debate adjudicators represent various stakeholders including science, communications/ journalism, religion, medicine, ethics, patients, and interested publics.

The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona has started the school year with a new workshop for high school students. The workshop is taking place every Thursday in the CRG Teaching and Training Lab facilities, a space specifically designed for the training of new researchers and for outreach activities.

This Stem Cell Awareness Day I joined Richard Axton and Cathy Southworth at Inverkeithing High School in Scotland to share with students the exciting world of stem cell biology and the work of being scientists. Having only just started my PhD, this was a new venture and I was intrigued to discover the thoughts and questions that hearing about the science might provoke.

Each year UniStem, the centre for dissemination of stem cell information led by EuroStemCell's partners in Milan, organizes a big event on stem cells dedicated to high school students. In 2014 the event was organized simultaneously by 47 universities across Italy, Spain, Ireland, Sweden and UK. Now plans for the 2015 event are underway and the UniStem team is looking for more universities to take part in this exciting event. Why not get involved?

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) played host to the 2014 Debating Science Issues (DSI) All-Ireland Finals last Thursday. St Joseph's Secondary CBS, Fairview from Dublin emerged as eventual winners of the competition.

UniStem Day 2014 once again dissolves the boundaries of stem cell knowledge and spreads it across Europe. The event will be happening simultaneously in Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and UK.

UniStem Day aims to foster learning, discovery and debate about stem cell research – building and strengthening knowledge. The event will give participants experiences connected to research, explore cultural expectations and give insight into the day-to-day life of scientists.

The 6th edition will be even larger with 45 universities and 20,000 high school students and more than 250 researchers, managers, communicators, ethicists, clinicians, technicians and many others learning more about and discussing cutting edge stem cell research, in a day entirely dedicated to high school students.

During October, over 450 Australian high school students and their teachers attending five screenings of the award-winning documentary Stem Cell Revolutions in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, organised by Stem Cells Australia and EuroStemCell.

At each screening, students had the opportunity to have their questions about stem cells and careers in science answered by Clare Blackburn, EuroStemCell's project coordinator and co-producer of the film, as well as a panel of local stem cell experts.